Category Archives: Halo

So I have been able to get my first proper game of Halo: Fleet Battles.

Thanks to @mterminatorw for inviting me to his place and playing.

So as this was my first chance to play the full game after practicing just the Battlegroup phase it was a great experience to use everything in my Fleet.

So let’s get started.

So this is the setup that we started with, no small encounter, we went straight to the defence of Reach. Michael was playing the defending UNSC fleet while I was launching a first wave attack against Reach with the Covenant. We both had around 1000p (give or take a few points).

Things quickly started to escalate when I lead my main force into the asteroid fields and the UNSC was quick to react and meet me up close and personal.

The UNSC battlegroup got the first damages on mine with its first volley (those MAC cannons can pack a serious punch when combined together). Not to mention all of the bombers that are hanging around my Battlecruiser.

i soon retaliate by destroying one of the Paris class elements and reducing the incoming firepower from this battlegroup.

Not only do the UNSC bombers succeed in damaging and hitting a vulnerable system on my Corvettes but now he has launched boarding parties. Time to let the Elites have some fun.

While the action continues on the other side of the asteroid field my bombers are able to some serious damage against this Paris class element causing 2 damage tokens and a vulnerable token in just one attack run. This leaves it easy prey to my battlegroup that is descending down on them fast.

Thing start to get really close in the centre of the asteroid field as Plasma lances and MAC cannons are starting to go off a short range causing some major damage and loss to both fleets.

This is where things start to get really interesting. UNSC troopers have been able to board one of my Corvette elements and are causing some serious damage on board and soon make there way to my core where some well placed chargers send it into overload.

The resulting CRITICAL CORE BREACH is powerful enough to take out one of the other Paris class elements and deal damages to the final Paris class element and the supported Marathon class element. Not to mention wiping out any wings in the local area.

As the remaining ships launch their final desperate salvos and boarders it looks like it could be anyone’s game.

And this is where we come to possibly the best play in the game. A group of Spartans have been able to board my centre Battlecruiser and have snuck a HAVOK tactical nuke on board hoping to rid the sector of the alien menace. They quickly fight past the remaining Elite and grunt defenders and make their way to the centre of the ship and plant the bomb. They fight desperately to return to the waiting Pelican. Can they make it in time…

The answer is…

NO!

With the HAVOK’s timer reaching zero it vaporizes every living thing in the local area. Leaving nothing but dust and echoes.

This was the final and most successful attack in the game, wiping out every last ship from local space. Leaving Reach secure till the next wave of Covenant arrive and hopefully giving the rest of the UNSC defence to gather and prepare.

But whats this?!? It seems like one lonely bomber wing has survived to tell the tale. This guy was lucky enough to have survived the HAVOK nuke but he has quite a trip to make his way back to Reach.

This scene reminds me of something but I can’t remember what…

Well as this was my first game I got great satisfaction from the result. We had a great game with some fun moments and look forward to the UNSCs revenge against the Covenant menace.

I hope you enjoyed this battle report and I look forward to doing more in the near future.

What I will be talking about today is something that I have been looking forward to since Salute 2015, the release of Halo Fleet Battles, from Spartan Games and 343 Industries.

So you know i’m not going into too much detail in the rules, but I will explain the basics of the game.

What I will start with is some photos and descriptions of the contents of the boxset.

Lets start with the fun part, the ships.

As you can see above you get plenty of ships in the box, although I actually have two boxset’s worth of Covenant ships.

The ships are easy to put together and come on the sprues in such a way that you barely need the instructions to put them together (although the Paris class Frigate comes in one piece).

The ships you get in the boxset are:

UNSC (32 models)

1 Epoch-class Heavy Carrier

4 Marathon-class Heavy Cruisers

27 Paris-class Frigates

Covenant (17 models)

1 ORS Class Heavy Cruiser

2 CCS Class Battlecruisers

14 SDV Heavy Corvettes

The boxset gives you more ships for the UNSC but that is mainly due to the fact that the Covenant ships have much longer range and much stronger weapons. The UNSC have the obvious numbers advantage plus they can move faster then the enemy ships.

*An example of a game setup of Halo Fleet Battles*

Next lets talk about the rulebooks. The core rulebook as shown on the right is absolutely packed full of amazing lore information, pictures from Spartan Games own collection of Halo ships (Including the beautiful Assault Carrier that should be out by the end of the year), and of course all the rules you will need to play the game. The other book has game setups and special scenarios to play the epic space battles that lead up to and decide the fate of the UNSC fortress world of Reach.

OK, so now lets talk about who will lead your fleet.

*Vice Admiral Michael Stanforth*

*Supreme Commander Rho ‘Barutamee*

The photo above shows the Commander cards that have the special rules for the character who will lead your fleets. They explain their rank, command ship names, standard rules and special rules (which are used in the game to give advantages to your fleet) plus that commander’s UNIQUE ABILITY, a special rule that the commander can use mid-game. Next to these cards are the special ORDER DICE, these are used in game to play the standard/special rules and help in deciding who has initiative.

These are the ship profile cards that come in the boxset and explain all details of the ships that you will need to play the game, ex, ships type, movement, damage track, weapon profiles and special rules. They also show the different formations you can have the ships in. You can either have a UNSC Epoch class Heavy Carrier alone, or you can have it supported by a Paris class Frigate, this give you the advantage of having more firepower and better defenses while having to pay slightly more in the army list. You also get the profiles for the squads of fighters that are launched from the larger ships, bombers and even boarding craft, some of which can contain Spartans or even Elite Zealots.

Below is an example of the ship templates, that have an easy to use profile listed on it as well as showing the different arcs of fire that the ships can use. Some weapons can fire in Fore, Port or Starboard arc, and some weapons can fire multiple arcs.

Lets talk about Tokens.

The photo above shows examples of the tokens that you will use in the game. The top line are used for Covenant interceptors, boarding craft, bombers and the Zealots that can be sent to attack enemy ships. Then we have the UNSC variants, bomber, boarding craft, two types of interceptors (which have slightly different profiles) and the spartans which can cause some serious damage if allowed to get aboard an enemy ship.

Next we have the playing dice that will be used in the game. In the boxset you get 20x special D6 and 2 x D6, (these are used to decide initiative and rolling for damage dealt against boarded ships). The special dice are 6 sided but only have 4 types of symbols, these are (2) 2 successes, (1) 1 success, Miss and FAIL! These dice can actually have differing results when shooting against other ships as there is a special rule called ‘FIREPOWER RATING’ where certain weapons or space phenomenon can effect where on the rating chart you roll giving you better or worse chances of doing damage.

Next we have the terrain templates that come in the boxset.

I think these are great! Great detail!! And some great rules. They can effect movement, shooting and even damage ships. Better be careful when moving near those planets, one misstep and all they’ll find of your ship is a massive crater.

Final part of the boxset is the Reference Sheet, giving you all the details you’ll need for easy use while playing and blowing stuff up!!!

This is obviously just a small overview of the game but if you are interested in a more detailed look how about you pop down to the club for an intro game, I’ll be running them anytime someone wants a go.

Also if you are interested in the game you can find it in the link below or from several independent stockists.

http://shop.spartangames.co.uk/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=HFBB01

Anyway, hope you enjoyed and look forward to your opinions and responses.

Alright guys! So we had another amazing night of gaming last night with loads of different games going on at the same time. As usual many photos to follow. Please enjoy.

First off we were lucky enough to have an introduction to Dropzone Commander for anyone who fancied it. Thanks to @James_Alex_B from @HawkWargames for coming down and showing this off as well as being kind enough to donate a rulebook plus plenty of the terrain used in the game for anyone who wants to play in the future.

Before everything kicked off of the night we had a tense game of Guildball between @NationofLee Fisherman and Luke’s Morticians, as is usually the case Shark is able to make it to the goal and score without much hassle.

For the first time we got some people playing Age of Sigmar at the club. It looks to me that the Tombkings force has their work cut out for them against those Sigmarites but they quickly get the upperhand when some fresh troops are resurrected to bring more pain.

Now we come to a very interesting game of Malifaux, a three-way battle. Seems like some Arcanists and Neverborn are having a bit of a scrap, at which time the Guild makes an ambush to bring these criminals to justice. Unfortunately, the Guild underestimated how many enemies they would be facing a take a nasty beating. They were able to make several arrests before retreating. Better to survive and fight another day.

Next we come to the intro table to the new game from @spartangames and 343 Industries Halo Fleet Battles. I was able to build and paint everything and read the rulebook in two days in preparation, and I was exhausted by the end of it but was happy to show it off to the club. Had some interest from a couple of players and hoping to show it off to others soon.

It seems like the Dropzone bug really bit last night as we had a full game going on at the back of the room. Seems like some big ships and even a gigantic walking tank are about to make a mess of each other.

Finally we had another epic battle from the world of Bolt Action. Something tells me that tank is going to make someone day really, really bad.

So it’s been an exciting week for me. Not only have I been off work all week but my preorder’s of Halo Fleet Battles arrived on Wednesday and I have been working hard the last day and a half building, painting the models and learning the rules ready for an intro night at the club.

In regards to this I will be posting three articles this weekend, one for the events of club night, including the intro games held for DropZone Commander, my intro games for Halo Fleet Battles and an article on the game in general including my impressions of the models and how the game plays.